Shōgun proved its staying power on Sunday night with a record-breaking 18 Emmy Award wins, including one for Outstanding Drama Series.
A year after the category featured frequently nominated, multi-season stalwarts like Succession, The Crown, Better Call Saul, and Yellowjackets, only one of this year’s nominees — The Crown — had been up for Outstanding Drama Series before. The rest of the nominated dramas were either coming off an acclaimed first season (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Fallout, 3 Body Solution, and Shōgun) or finally getting some well-earned Emmy recognition (Slow Horses, The Gilded Age, and The Morning Show).
On Emmy Night, it was ultimately Shōgun that came out on top. Shogun — an adaptation of James Clavell’s historical novel about an Englishman in 17th century Japan, and the basis for an acclaimed 1980 miniseries — earned a record-breaking 25 nominations total at this year’s Primetime Emmys, and had already won 14 of those heading into the main event Sunday. It went on to take home four more, breaking the record that was previously held by HBO’s 2008 miniseries John Adams, which won 13 awards at the time.
However, Outstanding Drama Series wasn’t supposed to be one of those 25 nominations: Originally billed as a Limited Series upon release, the critical success and popularity of Shōgun instead convinced producers to begin work on new seasons building on Clavell’s original story, which pushed Shogun’s eligibility from Outstanding Limited Series to Outstanding Drama Series, where it was victorious.
Executive Producer Justin Marks took the stage and thanked Hulu, Fx, and the team behind the scenes who brought Shōgun to life.
“You guys greenlit a very expensive subtitled Japanese period piece whose central climax revolves around a poetry competition,” he said. “I have no idea why you did that, but thank you for your faith in this incredible team.” He later added, “Shōgun is a show about translation, not what is lost but what is found.”
In addition to Outstanding Drama Series, Shōgun — only the second non-English-language series to be nominated in the category following Squid Game — also earned acting nominations for stars Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, and Takehiro Hira. Sanada and Sawai both won their categories on Sunday night.